


Mirror

by b1234



Category: Hindu Mythology, Hindu Religions & Lore, Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Feet fixation, Gen, Nothing Sexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-18 02:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21670669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/b1234/pseuds/b1234
Summary: Yudhishthira mistakes familial feelings for anything else.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> This is intentionally sad and uncomfortable.
> 
> Takes place during the gambling match, where Yudhishthira is apparently so distracted by Karna’s feet that he doesn’t notice Duryodhana spewing mouth-diarrhea at him. Haha.
> 
> Respectfully meant as entertainment only. Please enjoy.

As Duryodhana spoke, Yudhishthira seemed to the world to be completely remote. 

He was alone despite a palace full of people. His cousin’s words sounded somewhere far away, unable to touch him despite the world crumbling around him.

Once his eyes fell on them, just for an instant, Yudhi couldn’t tear himself away.

Karna’s feet.

It was maddening to gaze upon them, to feel so many emotions and so much confusion from something so simple.

Karna sat next to Duryodhana with a smile on his face from hearing his friend speak; his legs were crossed and feet pointed outwards. 

And Karna’s feet looked ridiculously familiar in a way the rest of his body did not. 

Yudhi moved his head around, straining to look at them from different angles without changing positions in an obvious way. His eyes wandered over them again and again, trying to refute what they were seeing.

Why did they look like his brothers’? 

Why did they look like...  
his mother’s?

Was it a mere coincidence? 

Was it possible that people simply shared bodily traits like that without having any relation?

There had never been such a resemblance in any other stranger: the sharp knuckles of Karna’s toes, how defined the bone structure was, the way one could see the tendons in his feet, the shape of them— all screamed familiarity.

Yudhi had seen his mother’s feet often enough to notice the shared traits, an odd amount of them.

More maddening yet was their beauty, which was mesmerizing. 

They were slender, long, and dark like the rest of Karna’s body, sweeping and curved as if in the shape of wings extending, with delicate toes that pointed upward...

Yudhi’s mind went to a place he didn’t want to acknowledge when he gazed at them. An aching clawed in his chest.

A longing for -something- overtook him, so horribly, so wretchedly, but without any idea as to what it could be.

It would never be fulfilled, whatever it was.

Yudhi imagined inspecting them with his own hands, turning them over from side to side, running his hand over the soft skin on top, down over the nails of the toes, and into the tough flesh of Karna’s soles.

They were certain to be warm. Even having known Karna’s hostility and cruelty, he could imagine it, that warmth.

His gaze moved to his own feet almost thoughtlessly and— Yes.

It was odd how that shape, so nostalgic, could make him feel as if he had stumbled across something on the ground that he had once lost, but without any pleasure at having found it.

He felt small somehow.

He felt like a child.


End file.
